Can a Leica lens on a phone beat a Leica camera? I compared the Leitzphone and the Q3 Monochrom to find out
On February 28, Leica revealed its first-ever international smartphone, called Leitzphone, powered by Xiaomi. As a Leica product, it carries the German giant’s classic red dot and borrows imaging tech from some of its best mirrorless cameras. It packs the most advanced camera system I’ve seen on a smartphone yet, capable of capturing 200MP images and boasting great optical image stabilization and autofocus.
For the past week, I’ve been using the Leitzphone and testing its photography capabilities. After all, it’s a Leica, it has to be good! Right? You’d be correct in making that assumption, because the Leitzphone honestly blows my trusty Google Pixel 10 Pro XL out of the water. And for the past two weeks, I’ve been testing the Leica Q3 Monochrom full frame camera. Naturally, I was curious to see how the Leitzphone fared against the latest addition to Leica’s lineup of black-and-white cameras.
Nikita Achanta
A quick rundown of specs
Before we dive into comparing the Leica Q3 Monochrom’s and the Leica Leitzphone’s image quality, let me give you a quick rundown of the specs. We’ll start with the Leitzphone first. The smartphone features four cameras: three on the back and a selfie camera on the front. The triple-camera system around the back comprises of a 50MP f/1.67 main camera with a 23mm full frame equivalent focal length; a 50MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera with a 14mm full frame equivalent focal length; and a 200MP 75-100mm f/2.39-2.96 telephoto camera with an optical zoom resulting in up to 400mm (17.2x) optical-level zoom.
All three cameras feature optical image stabilization which enables you to shoot handheld, even at the maximum focal length/zoom, as well as autofocus, which is quick to lock onto wildlife and humans. You also get access to Leica’s 13 color profiles, including Chrome, Vivid and Monochrom High Contrast, and unlike on most smartphones where these filters can be applied only during editing and after the fact, you can use these while shooting, so they’re much better than software filters and don’t flatten images.
Next up we have the Q3 Monochrom. At the time of writing, this is the latest addition to Leica’s lineup of black-and-white cameras, and it features a mono sensor which captures heaps and heaps of detail. It captures 60.3MP images in black-and-white, and having 60.3MP at your disposal means you can make extreme crops and the photos are suited to large-format printing too.
Similar to the Leitzphone, the Q3 Monochrom packs optical image stabilization for shooting at mildly slow shutter speeds. It features a fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens so it’s good for street, architecture, landscape and portrait photography. This is also a similar focal length to the Leitzphone’s 23mm full frame equivalent on the 50MP main camera. One of the Q3 Monochrom’s biggest selling points is its impressive high dynamic range performance (up to 14+ stops) for extensive highlights and shadows adjustments in post-production.
Comparing image quality
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One of the key differences between the Leica Leitzphone and most other smartphones is its ability to use color profiles in-camera and not only while editing, as I mentioned before. This helps the Leitzphone take better images that don’t look too edited, bringing it one step closer to the performance of mirrorless cameras.
Have a look at the images in the gallery above, where the Leitzphone’s images were shot using Leica’s Monochrom Natural color profile and using the 200MP camera. In each series, the first image has been taken on the Leica Q3 Monochrom and the second on the Leitzphone. The differences are subtle and don’t jump out immediately.
Let’s talk about the sharpness first. In the images taken on the Q3 Monochrom and the Leitzphone, all the edges are sharp and defined, and there’s good subject separation. This means that the subjects don’t blend in with the background, resulting in images looking 3D-esque and characterful.
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So how about grayscale and tonality? The Leitzphone excels at balancing the different shades of black and white, as you can see in the gallery above. These images appear true-to-life, and I’d say some are even better than the ones taken on the Q3 Monochrom. For instance, I much prefer the second slide over the first, as in my opinion, the brighter building looks nicer and more pleasing to the eye.
But if you’re looking for more detail, the Q3 Monochrom wins, as you can see the subtle shadows of the ivy on the building in the first slide. The Leitzphone, on the other hand, has made them less pronounced, resulting in an image that doesn’t have as much depth to it.
I also like that the second, third and fourth set of images look fairly identical, and if I presented them to you without telling you which camera captured which image, I wonder if you’d be able to tell. In the final set of images, though, you can see that the first shot taken on the Q3 Monochrom is ever-so-slightly sharper than the second taken on the Leitzphone. Still, the performance is commendable.
Comparing macro modes
Both the Leica Q3 Monochrom and the Leica Leitzphone feature dedicated macro modes. On the Q3 Monochrom, you can turn the macro ring on the lens barrel to reveal a different set of lens markings, and doing so reduces the minimum focus distance from 70cm to 17cm. Meanwhile, macro mode on the Leitzphone is automatically enabled when the camera is 30cm away from the 200MP telephoto camera — you can also force-toggle it via the settings on the camera screen.
The Leitzphone does well to go toe-to-toe with the Q3 Monochrom, with not many noticeable or glaring differences in image quality, as you can see in the gallery above. Similar to the previous section, each series of images in this section consists of the first photo being taken on the Q3 Monochrom and the second on the Leitzphone. Both cameras have done well to capture the tiny details in the keyboard switch (such as the strand of hair) and the lens of the Piranha Plant Cam.
There is one area the Q3 Monochrom wins, though, and that’s background bokeh. As you can see in the first and second shot, the Q3 Monochrom has done an excellent job at blurring the background and ensuring that the keyboard switch and the Piranha Plant Cam are the focus of the images. These images are more pleasing to the eye, and the background bokeh gives the photos a 3D, spatial effect.
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Similar to the images taken without the macro mode enabled, the Leitzphone tends to darken images taken with the macro mode on, as you can see in the gallery above. While the phone has done a good job at capturing the details, such as the individual strands of wool, sugar on the biscuit, and the etchings on the key, the photos are considerably darker than their Q3 Monochrom counterparts.
This makes the Leitzphone’s images look a bit too dramatic for my liking. They’re still good, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer the Q3 Monochrom’s images which look a little softer and more natural.
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For my last series of macro shots, I photographed a fake leaf made of plastic, and this is where both the Q3 Monochrom and the Leitzphone struggled. As you can see in the gallery above, both images are slightly out of focus, and I couldn’t get the perfect shot regardless of how many times I tried (and I tried a lot). The lines seem to bleed into one another, and it isn’t very pleasant to look at.
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Both the Q3 Monochrom and the Leitzphone are incredible, and great in their own right. The Leitzphone performs exceptionally well compared to the Q3 Monochrom, which doesn’t come as a surprise to me since this a smartphone developed by Leica, ergo, it uses Leica’s phenomenal imaging tech and optics.
If you want a dedicated black-and-white camera and don’t mind the steep asking price, getting the Q3 Monochrom is a no-brainer. This is a beautiful camera that handles well and takes stunning photos. Of course, you’ll be paying a premium of $7,790 at Adorama U.S. / £5,800 at Wex U.K. so it isn’t the most accessible camera out there.
The Leitzphone, on the other hand, is one of the cheapest ways of getting a Leica in the palm of your hands — cheap being a relative term — as it has a suggested retail price of $2,100 / £1,700. If you want a smartphone that takes some of the best photos (for a phone), and you can afford it, then the Leitzphone is very easy to recommend.
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